“Throughout history, traditional music and culture have been appropriated and misrepresented. Presently in Ukraine, patriotic songs play an important role in fuelling a populist, romantic nationalism. In contrast, I seek to capture private and hidden realities within communities that are excluded from the larger historical narrative of the region.
I am particularly interested in songs that describe in tragic, brutal or comical ways domestic abuse, murder, conflict, sex, love and hate. I want to show that the alternative folklore of the region – hard mountain rap, vintage feminism and filthy Carpathian hip hop – is still alive and relevant, before its last inheritors disappear.
Since 2014, I have gathered an archive of photography, video and sound recordings throughout western Ukraine. As opposed to traditional documentary practices, I prefer to describe my work as a folk opera: a collection of songs, stories, music, performance and field recordings, existing somewhere between an ethnographic document and musical theatre.”